


No night's sleep

by Nathamuel



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Gen, Kid Mako Mori, Nightmares, bed wetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 09:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nathamuel/pseuds/Nathamuel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After she's saved, Mako's sleep is full of nightmares.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No night's sleep

Stacker woke up to a scream. By the time he heard the second one ring through his quarters he had already rolled out of bed and onto his feet, running. Fear for the little girl he had adopted only a few days ago twisted in his chest and he prayed to a god he didn't believe in that she was alright. 

He slammed the door to her room open, gun gripped tight in one hand and held at the ready before he registered what he was seeing. There was no intruder in sight but Mako lay whimpering in her bed, caught in the clutches of a nightmare.

He moved to her side, leaving his weapon at the door and out of reach. Mako was twisting around in her bed, sheets tangled around her and restricting her movements. Stacker kneeled down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder to wake her up. Before he could even open his mouth to speak, she awoke with a loud scream.

Her face was wet with tears and she was breathing in great heaving sobs as Stacker pulled her against his chest. Mako clung to him, hiding her face in his shirt, soaking the fabric with her tears as he wrapped her in his arms. 

Now he was kind of glad that he had chosen to wear more than just his shorts to bed. He made soothing noises into her hair, climbing onto the bed beside her and leant against the headboard; all the while cradling the little girl against him as sobs wracked her body.

He ran the fingers of one hand through her hair soothingly and made shushing noises, hoping to calm her down. "Mako, it was a dream. You're safe now." He murmured. The girl wrapped her arms more strongly around him, only barely spanning his sides and cried and cried and cried. She was so small. No one so small should have to experience what she had seen and had had to endure. 

In a low voice he whispered a litany of "You're safe. You're safe. You're safe." to her until her breath slowly calmed. Eventually she sat up but didn't move away from him. Instead she leaned against his side and sniffed, breath still hitching and rubbed her leaking eyes. Tears kept running down her face and Stacker reached into her nightstand for a kerchief then dried her face and helped her blow her nose, keeping one arm around her to anchor her to reality.

"Do you want to talk about your dream?" He whispered to her but she shook and ducked her head, before turning her face away. Gently, so as not to startle her, he turned her face back to him and said: "You can always come to me when you need to talk. I know what it is like to lose your family. Ok?" She nodded and ducked her head again, the colour in her face going back to normal as the tears cleared in her voice. 

"I'm sorry. I made a mess." She choked out so low that Stacker almost didn't catch what she said. When he reacted only with confusion she sat up more fully and showed him the wet patch on her bed, breaking into tears again and hiding her face behind her hands in shame.

Stacker sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. "It's alright Mako." He said. He smiled at her reassuringly before helping her out of bed and into the bathroom.

He stripped the bed, changing the sheets but that night and for the next month Mako slept in his bed, curled against his side for protection against the horrors of the night.


End file.
